Thursday, April 9, 2009

I've been working on a series of lessons on the book of James and have really been struck by how we respond to trials. Trails are those tests sent by God to bring out the best in us. Temptations are sent by Satan to defeat us and bring out the worst in us. If we know that God sends the trials and we will be better for having experienced them, why do we still try to do everything in our power to avoid them. We see from scripture that trials bring patience, endurance, maturity (we all need a little of that), completeness. When reading these passages that deal with trials (James 1:2, James 1:12, James 5:11, I Peter 1:6) it almost seems that these qualities that we so desire don't come apart from suffering, be it through trials or temptations that we overcome.

Not only should we look at the benefits of the trials we face, we must look at our attitudes as we face these trials. James 1:2 says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." Joy? Really? Remember it doesn't say be happy and act giddy when we encounter trials, it says to have joy. A great picture of this kind of joy is found in Hebrews 12:2, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Did Jesus seem happy about the cross? No He despised the shame of it. The shame of sin and the wrath of God that would be poured out on Him. But it says the cross was the "joy set before Him". The joy was the ability to see beyond the cross and look at the result. The relationship between man and God restored.

If we take this attitude when facing trials, we tend to look at them differently. Do we get happy about them? No. But we do have joy know that the hand of God is working on us and making us more and more Christlike...if we don't blow it and bail out of the process.

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